Bad experience with Value PLA. I bought black and gray Value PLA filament with my recent purchase of a Creality Ender 3 V3 KE. First thing I noticed was how easy it snapped off when handling it. It seemed unusually brittle (I could be spoiled here because I used a lot of Ploymaker PolyLite a few years ago and it worked really well). I set the printer with the recommended temps (230 nozzle and 60 for the bed).
I used the black filament first and it was alright. I printed several models and no big issues. I then tried the gray. I tried printing a couple of filament spool holders that failed. (I probably should have used supports on one of the models.
Obviously there was an issue with the gray filament so I went into the Calibration section in Creality Print. The 3D printer could not even print the temperature tower past the 230 level. I have been having good success with the PLA Dark Blue (3D Printing Canada brand) so I printed the temperature tower using this filament. Much better results.
I think I will stay away from the Value PLA. I have 2 rolls of PETG and one Hyper PLA (3D Printing Canada brand) to try next. Appreciate any recommendations for PLA that people are having success with, especially on the Ender 3 V3 KE printer.
I agree it probably needs to be dried. I’ve had pretty good experience with value pla. Nearly all my printing is done with it. Also, 230°C nozzle temp? Isn’t that rather high? I typically print it at 200°. The PLA spools I have bought certainly don’t recommend printing at 230°.
Thank you for the feedback. Years ago on the Lulzbot Mini and CR10 that I bought for my Tech Dept at school, I found the PolyMaker PLA PolyLite filament printed really well at 205 or 210. I have about 3 rolls of Value PLA and on the box it recommends 230 as the Nozzle temperature.
Good afternoon.
From my many years of experience, I can recommend you for any PLA filament to use these temperatures for successful printing:
for print speeds up to 60mm:
- nozzle temperature 205 table temperature 65
for print speeds up to 120mm:
- nozzle temperature 210-215 table temperature 65
for print speeds up to 200mm :
- nozzle temperature 215-220 table temperature 65
I think it is clear from this example that the faster the printing, the higher the temperature of the extruder should be. PLA plastic can also be printed at 240-250 degrees, but your print speed should be high.
@tomshepp Temp towers are always wise. There are too many variables to say this or that temp is going to work. In my experience there are variations. A given print temp does not accurately transpose to every hot end. Why there is always a range.
I am going to use my example. One of my printers prints very fast (400mm/s with 3000mm/s acceleration) when I first got it out of the box I needed to run PLA at 245ºC and 55ºC on the bed.The hot end was too slow. I tweeted the hot end, switched to a more efficient nozzle and better sock with a slight change to the cooling and reduced the temps back to my ‘starting point’ for PLA of 205ºC
Your milage may vary. I have a starting point but it often is tuned. not all colours like the same temp. Some colours need different temps. It is wildly variable.
Personally I have not had any particular issues with the value pla, It works fine for me in multiple printers. I would really recommend drying low and slow but that is me, I bbq that way too.
